Johnny Cash tribute, 'Ring of Fire,' celebrates the legend of the Man in Black

It takes a little bit of goading, but eventually, Scott Stacy lets loose with the iconic line.

"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash."

Stacy and his stage counterparts never say the Man In Black's famous words during the two-hour "Ring Of Fire" stage tribute, which comes Saturday to The Palace of Auburn Hills -- and with a refined, theater-trained singing voice, that's good, because he's nowhere close to the leathery gravitas Cash boasted.

But inhabiting the thoughts and notes of the music legend is something Stacy and the other five featured singers in "Ring of Fire" -- two male, three female -- have gotten used to since they hit the road last fall.

"I had a passing familiarity growing up and remembered the TV show, but when it came time to audition for this show, I went out and got a lot of the CDs to learn everything," the 37-year-old Nashville, Tenn., resident said by phone this week.

"That was the fun part because for one, I had no idea how many albums he had put out, how many songs he did and how many different types of songs he sang. That he could go from gospel songs to straight country to these really dark prison songs was what made him so special."

Stacy and the other singers run that gamut during the show, covering almost three dozen classics and sobering songs, from "I Walk the LIne" and "Ring of Fire" to "Delia's Gone" and "Sunday Morning Coming Down."

Cash fans interested in the show or who already are heading out to The Palace should take note, though, as "Ring" is more a music review and tribute to Cash, not a theatrical version of 2005's "Walk The Line" biopic.

That confusion has led to some so-so reviews of the production -- as did its early exit from Broadway that caused it to be almost completely reimagined into its current form that's been termed "jukebox theater."

"Lots come in expecting something that's like 'Walk The Line,' so it takes them a little bit to get the hang of what we're doing, which is songs and narrative bits that go throughout his life," Stacy said. "If people have read about the show or heard anything about it, they know it's a musical review and a celebration of his life and work."

Cash, of course, died in 2003 and immediately took a role as a revered pillar of American song, helped in small part by a late-career revival, thanks to his work with producer Rick Rubin.

In part, the demand for a stage review of Cash's music comes from the fact that he stopped giving full concerts in his later years. His last full concert was in 1997 at The Whiting here in Flint, a performance that made headlines because the onset of Parkinson's disease -- then undisclosed -- made him almost fall off the stage.

A Southerner himself, Stacy said he expected strong audiences from the regions close to Cash's roots. But the hefty crowds throughout the show's run have been a welcome surprise and speak to the breadth of Cash's influence.

"We started in Texas, and there you expect it to do well and for people to be really interested," he said. "But we were up in a place like Toronto, and it was packed. It seems like no matter where you go, his fan base is there, and it's big."

With such a strong following and sizable legacy on the table, it might seem tempting for Stacy and others to mimic Cash's drawl and persona as a way to further the tribute.

Just the opposite is true, though, as producers explicitly told performers to avoid imitation.

"The main thing they told us was to sing these songs like we would ourselves, and they were working on some of the arrangements even as we were auditioning," he said.

"I was concerned at first about how these tunes would come across with women singing, because you associate them with this classic man doing them. But it's really creative and ... makes you pay even more attention to the lyrics of the songs. It'd be interesting, if he were here, to see what he thought about it."